BADER & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Bader & Associates qualified the historic Gray Davis Recall Petition in 2003 that culminated with Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as Governor of California.  The process of qualifying the Recall Petition using paid signature gatherers was historic for two reasons.  The first was that no California Governor had ever been recalled.  The second was that never in California's history had such an extensive and well-funded "blocking campaign" been waged in an attempt to prevent a petition from qualifying for the ballot.

A committee called Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall was established by Gray Davis supporters.  This committee retained virtually all of the major signature-gathering companies operating in California and offered them a pro-Davis Petition to circulate (known as a plebiscite), in exchange for not handling the Recall.  Other petition projects were also offered to the professional petition companies in order to tie up nearly everyone associated with paid signature gathering in California, so that there wouldn't be anyone left to collect signatures for the Recall Petition.  Many circulators that did end up working for the Recall complained of harassment and/or intimidation by Davis supporters.

Against this backdrop, Ted Costa of People's Advocate asked Tom Bader and his wife Joy Bader to take on the daunting task of qualifying the Davis Recall Petition.  Congressman Darrell Issa eventually provided most of the funding for the Recall Petition through a committee called Rescue California.

To counter the massive, organized, and well-funded blocking campaign, Tom and Joy Bader assembled a large network of contractors, most of whom were independent of the companies that were retained to obstruct the Davis Recall, to ensure that the necessary signatures could be collected in spite of the fact that many professional signature gatherers would not work on the Recall.

In order to accurately validate signatures to ensure that the Recall Petition wouldn't be sabotaged by opponents deliberately signing their names several times, or encouraging non-registered voters to sign, the Baders had validation software custom designed for the firm.  This software enabled Bader & Associates to cost effectively verify a large volume of signatures in a short time and accurately track duplicate signatures, a scourge that has threatened to disqualify a number of initiatives in recent years.

This network of contractors, combined with the software and other quality control measures, enabled Bader & Associates to qualify the Davis Recall Petition (the first Recall Petition to ever qualify for the ballot in California and only the second one ever to qualify in the United States) in record time with one of the highest rates of valid signatures and possibly the lowest rate of duplicate signatures ever achieved on a paid signature drive.

When all was said and done, the unprecedented blocking campaign that spent millions of dollars to prevent the Recall Petition from qualifying for the ballot turned out to be a big waste of money.  Without the knowledge, experience, and hands-on management of Bader & Associates, it's a fairly safe bet that the Recall would never have happened, and Arnold Schwarzenegger may never have become Governor (because of the difficulty of winning the Republican primary).

Whether or not you agreed with the outcome of the Recall Election, we hope you'll agree that qualifying the Recall Petition was an accomplishment that took skill and commitment to success.  Tom and Joy Bader and Bader & Associates, Inc. would like to bring this same skill and commitment to success to your project.

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The Davis Recall made history because it was the only Gubernatorial Recall ever to succeed in California.

 No opposition campaign has EVER spent as much money and exerted as much effort in trying to prevent an issue from getting on the ballot.

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